Our founding fathers always preached that, in our republic, while congressmen and senators certainly needed to represent their constituents, they also must exercise their own judgment, even if the majority of voters in their districts might disagree.
Well. Brian Baird, a Democratic congressman who represents a district near the city of Seattle, was long opposed to the war in Iraq. But recently he visited there, and came away convinced the surge is succeeding and that a rapid pullout was a bad idea. He has said so publicly. Therefore some of his antiwar constituents are after him, which became obvious in a town meeting he held in his district the other night. The congressman, with some obvious courage, argued with some of his critics, stating that he couldn't go against his convictions. That didn't sit too well with a female in the audience: “We don’t care what your convictions are,” said Jan Lustig of Vancouver. “You are here to represent us.”
